Transportation and activities if staying in Livorno

Natalia Castro

New member
My husband and I will be going on our honeymoon to Italy (for the first time ever) at the end of August and we'll be staying at the Poggio All'agnello Country Resort for a week. We only have planned out to go to Cinque Terre and maybe visit Elba the island given that we are so close to the coast. For sure we'd love to visit Florence and other cities. We would like to get some guidance and advice in regards to the transportation (better to rent a car or take the train) and also must visit places/restaurants/museums/attractions etc...
We are a bit confused about the access to the train because google maps show us that the Resort is very close to a train station (Populonia) but because there's restricted usage or private roads there's no direct access and it will take us 40 mins by foot. Has anyone stayed at the same resort to verify this for us? Will the train at Populonia Stazione take us directly to Florence downtown?

We would love to receive any valuable information from you guys.

Thank you so much!
 
Stazione di Populonia is not a train station stop....

Ciao!

This seems to be a large resort, with many apartments, pools and more... from their website, it seems they also rent bikes. Stazione di Populonia can be a bit deceiving - it is the name of the town where the resort is located and there are no trains that go by there!

The nearest train station is the one at Campiglia Marittima which the resort says is 9km away. Google Maps says it is more like 6.3km - if you rented bikes at the resort, you could theoretically bike there much faster.
Other option: take a bus. Since the bus takes you to San Vincenzo before taking you to Campiglia, the best solution is to take the train at San Vincenzo itself! From that train station, you can get anywhere in Tuscany - Pisa, Cinque Terre and Florence included, directly to the center of Florence!

I assume day trips will be limited, staying at a resort means staying there, hanging out by the pool, taking their shuttle down to the beach, enjoying all of the activities. The Gulf of Baratti is nearby and it is beautiful. Visit the Etruscan archeological area at Populonia for sure!

For these days trips, I'd say a car rental for the week is wasted since you can easily take the train once you get there... so to get there, here are the bus timetables:
http://www.tiemmespa.it/index.php/Viaggia-con-noi/Orari-e-linee/Piombino/Extraurbano
you'll want the last one that goes from Baratti to San Vincenzo in one direction, to Piombino in the opposite.

As for Elba, you can get there with bus to Piombino and then ferry to Portoferraio and then bus to move around the island. The easiest way to move around the island is by car - but you can do it by bus. You'll just have to be super careful about planning your move around the island or where you want to go to depending on the timetables - take a look at the timetables.
weekdays - http://www.atl.livorno.it/Orario Estivo/feriale/Extraurbano Elba feriale.pdf
weekends and holidays - http://www.atl.livorno.it/Orario Estivo/festivo/Extraurbano Elba festivo.pdf

Oh make sure to check the satellite view on Google Maps.... seems nothing is there, it is an old view... check the one on Bing Maps, much more recent but still not updated, as it shows the works in progres... this resort seems to be brand spanking new, you'll have to let us know what you think of it and how everything goes!! :D

BTW - are you getting to the resort from the airport, from somewhere else? It seems the resort offers shuttles from the Pisa airport, if that's useful for you...?
 
Ciao Lourdes, grazie mille per la tua risposta!
Thanks a lot for the heads up about the fake train station on the map, hehehe. We will certainly go visit the Gulf of Baratti (thanks to your suggestion).
The resort sure looks very interesting, however we do plan to be out 80% of our week visiting florence, cinque terre, little cities, etc....after our week is over at the resort we will go to Rome for 3 days.
We were thinking about possibly renting a car during our stay in the resort because:
-we actually land in Pisa
-we would like to drive to Cinque Terre (so that we can stop at places on our way)
-we would like to drive to Rome so that we may visit little towns and then return the car as soon as we get to Rome.
However, we would like to know if you think it's doable to use the car as well to get close to Florence. Meaning that we drive from the resort to a train station (is there parking available near train stations there? paid? safe?) so that we can get to the heart of Florence by train and walk until we are exhausted :p
Do you think that could be an option? It's just that we are afraid to loose time (in case we have to wait a lot for the buses), just looking at the bus timetables is quite overwhelming.....would it be more stress-free and reliable to use the car instead?

I'm sorry for asking so many questions but what we think it's right may not be the best way according a local and expert (like YOU)....that's why we really want your advice and determine if our idea of driving is crazy or not.

p.s: I could ask the hotel but do you happen to know if we drive from the resort to the closest beach, will there be parking? paid? or will it be better to take the shuttle bus of the resort which we will be most likely have to pay for?

Have a great evening!
 
yes to car rental

Ciao Natalia,

Actually, if you're up to driving here in Italy, I'd recommend to go the car rental. It is the best way to move around between all the small towns and villages, it is definitely a time saver!
Here's the perspective of one of our forum member's experience and tips and here are our tips, as well as a search box at the end to start checking out rates.

As far as the resort and beach, it was my impression the shuttle to their beach is free... but rereading info on the site, it seems they don't have their own piece of beach.... you will likely find parking near all of the other beaches, but if you're going nearby, bikes or shuttle might just make more sense. Keep in mind this area is a lot of "free" beaches and there are no formal parking lots.... you'll see everyone just parks along the road closest to the paths that lead to the beach. Once you're here and go off exploring a day or two, you'll see what I mean!

To Cinque Terre - just plan to park at La Spezia and take a train the last 10 min in to Riomaggiore, the first of the towns of the Cinque Terre. These are towns on cliffs on the water front, driving can be a bit hair raising on the roads there since they are narrow and steep and parking is really limited. So perfect to drive up and stop along the way, but do move between the towns by train (they are all 5 min apart from each other by train).

As far as Florence, you can drive all the way in to Piazzale Michelangelo, park there (free parking) and walk down into the center. That would make the most sense in terms of time savings and not having to worry about buses.

So as far as the car rental, I definitely would say go for it!!
 
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